


Among the Dead

by randompersonH2O



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-09-13 19:46:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9139612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/randompersonH2O/pseuds/randompersonH2O
Summary: Life has always been full of surprises, but the zombie apocalypse certainly wasn't the one that Emma was expecting. Thrown right into the new world created by the undead, will she choose to keep her humanity, or adapt to living among the dead? Is it possible to do both?





	1. Chapter 1

**Daryl's POV**   
  
I struggled blindly against my captors as they forced me forward. Their fingers latched securely onto my bound form, unkempt nails digging into my skin. I had no idea where these men were taking me, yet I was powerless to stop them. I had to admit, staying behind to look for Merle didn't seem like such a great idea now that I'd been caught for it. I regretted the decision, sure, but it wasn't something I could change.   
  
I listened intently as I stumbled on, a voice growing louder and louder with every step I took. I flinched a little when I heard the owner of that voice mention Merle, my brother; he called him a traitor, accusing him of letting some "terrorists" into the city. He must have meant us, but that definitely wasn't true. If he had done what Glenn had said he did, he never would have let us in to save them.   
  
According to Glenn and Maggie, Merle had picked them up when they were out on a run for supplies. He hadn't had much of a reason to, but Michonne had told us what the Governor did to other groups. They never came back with the members of any civilizations they supposedly found, so the assumption was that the Governor had been killing them. Whether or not Merle had taken members of our group to find me I don't know, but I do know that my brother didn't let us in. We had to do that ourselves.   
  
Still, the announcement of my brother's supposed betrayal was met with a flurry of gasps and whispers from whatever people had gathered to listen to this man speak. I had no idea who he was yet, but if I had guessed right, I would say that this was the Governor that Michonne had told our group about. She hadn't said much, but what she did tell us made him sound far from friendly.   
  
It also make me want to tear him to pieces for what he was saying. How dare he call us terrorists when he had stolen and tortured two of our group members! It was hypocritical, and not something I was going to forgive. It didn't seem like that was what they were expecting, though.   
  
I grunted as my captors pushed me forward, squirming slightly in their grasp as they directed me to where they wanted me to stand. The speaker’s words fell on deaf ears as the chattering of my anxious thoughts drowned him out. They had brought me out in front of all these people...   
  
What were they planning?   
  
I straightened up immediately when the hood was pulled off of my head, hoping to get a better look at my surroundings as I was held there. However, the scene that met my eyes was nothing like what I'd expected.   
  
I was being held in the center of a dirt arena, walkers set at even intervals as if to act like an undead fence. It was easy to see that there was ample room to leave when their chains were pulled tight, but once they were allowed to have a little room to move on their leashes, there would be no escape.   
  
However, I couldn’t hear myself think with the crowd shouting at me as loud as it was. There weren't many people there, but it wasn't hard to pick out the creased brows and clenched fists of the standing citizens. Whatever lies the bastard had told them had certainly done what he intended, for every single one of them, even one of the children, was shouting for him to feed me to the walkers.   
  
I looked across to the opposite side of the arena quickly, my eyes widening when I spotted Merle standing there, head still held high despite the circumstances. His eyes looked whiter than the deep blue I was used to, though. It was as if he had seen a ghost.    
  
To be honest, it was almost as if I had. I'd never expected to see him again, after all.   
  
Once both of us had finally accepted that the other was really there, Merle's pale face began to return to the brotherly look that I knew. His mouth was curled into a small, displeased frown instead of hanging open like the entrance to a dark cave that the locals thought was cursed. Still, he seemed a little too familiar with the turf as he took a few steps towards me.   
  
"Good to see you, brother," he started, "Although, this really isn't the best time."   
  
"Good to know you're alive," I replied tersely, immersed in evaluating our plight. We could celebrate our reunion later. For now, we had to get out of here.   
  
I examined the crowd of enraged people again, wondering how a few simple words had set them into such a frenzy. The one-eyed man, who was now standing triumphantly to the side, was starting to test my patience. How wicked could he possibly be to do this kind of thing to people?   
  
It made me wonder just where he had been before the world went to shit to get this cold.   
  
I let my eyes drift through the mass of people yet again, my eyes catching on a familiar face as the person it belonged to made her way to the front of the crowd. At first, I thought I was hallucinating. However, as she drew closer, I could tell that this definitely was the real thing. She was really here.   
  
"Phillip, stop this!" Andrea shouted, wriggling in the clutches of the men who had stepped up to keep her from interfering with whatever the Governor had planned for my brother and I.   
  
I glared as he approached me, but the Governor wasn't paying attention to me or her as he stopped in the center of the ring. The smirk he wore as he looked at all of the people screaming for our deaths sent chills up my spine. I definitely wasn't going to show him I was scared, though. That would only make things worse.   
  
The Governor raised his hands high to silence the crowd, surprising me when the din of their shouts gradually died down. The man clearly had control over the people, and he wasn't hesitating to use it to his advantage.   
  
"I think I have the perfect solution to our problem, ladies and gentlemen."  

The Governor turned to face Merle and I as he spoke. His one good eye seemed to be smiling at what he was about to do, and, despite not knowing what he was planning, I shivered in anticipation of his actions.

The Governor continued, "a fight... To the death! Winner goes free."

A low growl rose in my throat at the proposition. I wasn't about to fight my own brother, and that was final. However, the signs of my distaste seemed to be drowned out by the cheering of the crowd, and I knew then that we would have to think of something fast if we wanted to escape unscathed.   
  
I looked up once I heard the sound of the Governor's shoes crunching in the dirt as he retreated to the outside of the circle. My gaze drifted to my brother for just a moment in hopes that I could figure out what he thought about the situation. His face was a brick wall at the moment, his thin lips drawn into an unreadable line as he watched the Governor leave.   
  
I might not have been able to tell what Merle was thinking, but an inescapable feeling of dread was coursing through me as I waited for what would come next.   
  
The Governor stopped once he was outside the circle of walkers, standing just in front of the crowd so that he had a front row seat to what he had assumed to be the death of one of us. I had my doubts, though, as one of his men cut the cords that had bound my wrists. Merle wouldn't kill me... would he?   
  
I didn't have the heart to answer the question as I rubbed the raw, red spots on my wrists. There had been plenty of times before this that we'd clearly wanted to kill each other, but it had never happened. Now that the chance was being offered again, I wasn't sure if he would take it.   
  
I let my hands fall to my sides in clenched fists as the chains of the walkers surrounding us were lengthened, trapping us in the circle. We could easily figure out a way to get out of this without killing each other. We just had to buy a little time.   
  
I turned in Merle's direction, not at all expecting to be met by the sight of his metal stump.   
  
Releasing a sharp cry, I staggered back as pain exploded through me. My hands had instinctively come up to clutch my broken nose, or at least I assumed it to be broken. It hurt like hell, that's for sure.   
  
I wiped away the drops of blood that were beginning to pour from my nose, my eyes fixed on the looming form of my brother. I didn't know what he was doing, but I hoped that he didn't plan on following the Governor's orders to kill me.   
  
"Merle, are you crazy? We gotta get the hell out of here!" I shouted, wiping more blood from my face as the it cascaded from my nostrils. I didn't want to fight him, but I wasn't about to just lie down and let him smack me around, either.   
  
Merle specified, "One of us has to get out of here, Daryl." His fist clenched as he approached me again. I took a small step away. There wasn't really anywhere for me to go. I was trapped by the walkers, and it made me sincerely hope that my brother was joking, or I would be in some deep shit.   
  
"One of us ain't gettin' out of here alive, and I'd rather live," he continued, hesitating for just a moment before lunging at me. Now it was obvious he wasn't joking; I just refused to accept it.   
  
I let out another howl as he came at me, barely able to slam my fist into his stomach as his charge knocked the two of us to the ground. However, it seemed that the blow hadn't phased him at all. If anything, it had only made my brother angrier.   
  
I tried my best to push Merle away from me, but it did nothing as he dragged me towards the outside of the circle of walkers. He had always been stronger than me, and it was showing now as Merle yanked me through the dirt. I was like a rag doll, played with to the point where I was no longer wanted.   
  
"Wait for me on the other side, brother," he whispered to me, not even bothering to look down at me as I fought to free myself from his grasp. I could barely believe that Merle, my own flesh and blood, was going to do this to me. Were all of the times that we'd helped each other throughout our lives, our childhood, not important anymore? Just because someone else told him that I needed to die?   
  
Apparently so, because the man I'd thought would never betray me was delivering me to the walkers. They were all excited now, clawing the air as they tugged at their taut chains. Their pale, dead eyes found their target easily, as if the beasts knew that I was food. I wasn't going to be their meal, though. Not without a fight.   
  
However, the fight I was giving Merle wasn't enough to get me free. We were close to the walkers already, and it didn't take much for him to shove me in the creatures’ direction.   
  
I yelped as I hit the ground, turning over quickly to face the walker that my brother had thrown me to. It was closer than I'd thought it would be. The creature fell next to me, the smell of it's rotting flesh invading my nose. I wanted to vomit, but I wasn't about to turn away from the thing to do it.   
  
I cried out as it came closer, clenching my eyes shut as it approached me again. I didn't want to watch the walker tear into me, and I certainly didn’t want to see Merle's face as he let it do so. I was hoping that he would change his mind, and maybe get me away from the thing before it took a bite of me.   
  
Instead, someone else decided to act before him. A gunshot echoed throughout the arena, stifling the mob’s pandemonium. My eyes flew open, the silence brought on by the shot almost deafening as I sat up. The walker that had been about to eat me was lying dead at my side, black blood dribbling from the hole in its head. I stared at it for a minute, grateful for whoever had decided to pull the trigger. If they hadn't, I could've been dead.   
  
Merle's laughter drew my attention away from the dead creature. Confused, my blue eyes followed his gaze into the crowd. I caught sight of the person holding the gun, but I had to blink a couple of times to make sure that I wasn't seeing things. There was no denying what I saw, though. I could barely hold back a chuckle.   
  
I had been saved by a teenage girl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thank to LittleWhiteSins on Wattpad for editing this and all future chapters of this story.


	2. Chapter 2

**Emma's POV**

I sighed as I leaned back in the uncomfortable plastic chair I was sitting in, a quiet yawn escaping my chapped lips as my teacher droned on about math. I wasn't really paying attention to what she was saying, but I couldn't just get up and leave. There was no telling what could be outside that classroom door. The infected had only started entering the city weeks ago, but the virus had begun to spread about a month before that.

We should've gotten out while we had the chance, but the walkers flooded the cities before we could. My mom was trapped at her job in the city about an hour away, and my stepfather was about half that distance from me. He'd taken shelter inside his karate studio when the dead had gotten too close, and I hadn't heard from either of them in a day. By now, I didn't care about math at all. I just wanted to get out of the school and find my family. However, the school had been in lock down since that morning. A few walkers had approached the facility, and the idea that they were coming so close to our little town in the middle of nowhere had everyone scared out of their minds. I was doing my best to keep myself calm, though; it was the only way that I would be able to survive what was coming.

I flinched as the loudspeakers in the classroom blared to life, brushing my dark brown hair out of my face as I waited for the announcement to come. I was hoping that they would finally allow me and the other students to go home, but the moans on the other end of the speaker weren't very reassuring of that hope.

"Teachers and students," the principal customarily began, "we have a slight issue in the office area of the building. If all teachers could please advise their students to remain in the classroom until it has been solved, that would be much appreciated."

The device clicked off after his few short words, leaving the students to ponder the meaning of the announcement in hushed whispers. I had a small feeling in my chest that I knew what was going on, but the idea wasn't one I was willing to consider. Not until it came from the lips of my teacher herself, at least. 

The walkers were in the building. No one knew their exact location, according to her, but that little tidbit of information didn't help to calm any of the other children. If anything, it only made the situation worse. The panicked voices of the others who occupied the room filled it, drowning my rational thoughts in a flurry of screams and sobs. They sounded more to me like toddlers in that moment, and I wanted to scold them all for bringing on a headache that should never have been. However, I never had the chance to say anything to them. The walkers took care of all of that for me.

The slap that resounded on the glass of the small window on the door silenced everyone almost right away, but the moans and growls of the creatures outside the door roused the fears of the group and a shouting match began once again. My head throbbed from the noise, but I couldn't keep myself from looking at the walkers near the door. The two that I could see fighting for entrance to the room would have seemed like normal people at first glance. However, my hazel eyes picked out the decaying parts of their faces easily. One even seemed like it had been bitten on its face, but I wasn't about to get close enough to the door to confirm that idea. The bloody hands of the creatures scratched and clawed at the thin glass as we stared, smearing the dark liquid on the window and making them harder to see. I didn't know exactly what, or who, their previous meal could have been, but I knew from the hungry look in their glassy eyes that they'd set their sights on us next.

"Everyone, back to your seats!" My teacher shouted, her shrill voice startling most of the students out of their panicked conversations. The other students quickly obeyed and shuffled back to their places in the classroom, though I didn't need to do much of anything besides sit down.

"Now, I want you all to create a probability formula to calculate who in this room would be the most likely to be eaten first. I'll send around a sheet for you all to write your heights and weights on to solve it," she continued, bringing forth a chuckle from me. That is, until she actually started passing around the sheet of paper. I had actually been hoping that she was joking up until that point, but no one else laughed. They all simply began to work, the woman responsible for the assignment sitting down calmly at her desk as the walkers continued to claw at the door. The volume of their moans had increased with what I assumed to be the arrival of more of them, but no one seemed to be bothered by it except me. Was I the only one thinking rationally here?

"Mrs. Lewis?" I called, hoping to get the attention of the woman without drawing the eyes of my peers as well. I didn't like any of them anyways, so I didn't want any of them staring at me or blaming me if the walkers eventually got in and we were still doing schoolwork. "Why are we still doing work? Shouldn't we be doing something about the infected on the other side of the door?"

Her wrinkled face immediately scrunched up in a disapproving frown, eyes narrowing as the rest of the class turned their attention to their superior as well. I knew that she wasn't very fond of me, but I didn't think that questioning her decision would push her so far that she would physically show it. "Just complete the problems. Someone will be here soon to take care of them," the woman spat, turning back to whatever she was doing at her desk as she left us to do the work she'd assigned us. Others went back to their work, satisfied with the excuse, but all the statement did for me was cause me to scoff. I had seen enough of what had happened out there that I knew no one was coming. No one would waste any resources they had - bullets or anything else - on a school full of defenseless children. The hospital didn't do anything for my brother, after all.

I looked at the notebook sitting in front of me for a moment, considering my options. There was no fucking way that I was going to sit here and work on math with those creatures outside threatening my safety. There was only one other option, however, and it wasn't one I was extremely fond of. I had to leave, and I would have to go through the walkers to do it.

I opened my backpack immediately, searching the many compartments for anything I could use to fight the walkers outside. I wasn't going to be able to kill them all, but hopefully at least one would be distracted by the options it had when it came to a meal and I would be able to slip out without it noticing. A pair of scissors was the only thing I could scrounge up in the end, but it was better than nothing. I shoved them in my pocket quickly, glancing around the classroom to make sure I wasn't attracting attention. However, it was clear by the combined volume of the other kids and the walkers outside that I wasn't going to be noticed as long as I was quiet.

My cell phone was the next thing to come out of my backpack, for I knew I would never make it home by running on the roads. I didn't have my own car, either, so I would have to call someone to come and get me. If anyone could, anyways. This wasn't the only place crawling with the undead.

I dialed my mom's number quickly, praying that I wouldn't be noticed with the phone as I waited for her to pick up. However, it went to voicemail, drawing a frown to my face as I left a message. She usually always answered me if her phone was on, which was why I was even more anxious to get out of here. If anything had happened to my family, I wasn't going to hear about it here. 

Once I was sure that my mother wasn't going to pick up, I tried the number of my stepfather, Ron. He would probably be the person most likely to come get me, but the problem would be that I would have to see whether or not he could get out of his studio to do so. He didn't pick up the phone, but one of his friends, Chris, did. I was a little surprised to hear his voice at first, but I figured that it was better than no one answering at all. Still, it was unusual that someone else would answer Ron's phone, but I wasn't going to ask at that moment. Hopefully, I would be able to ask in person. I explained my situation to Chris quickly, asking him to come and get me in a bit of a hushed whisper as I tried to hide the fact that I was doing something other than the work that had been assigned from the teacher. She still hadn't looked up from her desk, but she often scolded students for talking without looking up. If I was caught talking during that time, I might not get the phone back, and would most likely die with the rest of the people in this room.

"Can't you just call your dad?" The man asked, his response quick and nervous. I wasn't sure what he was hiding from me, but I was sure I would get it out of him eventually.

"My dad's in Colorado. He'd never be able to get here if he could answer his phone to get to me. That, and he's probably dead anyways," I replied, looking down for a moment at the thought. It hurt to think about my father like that, but he'd never thought that an apocalypse like this would be able to happen. He wasn't the healthiest person on the planet either, so he wouldn't have as much of a chance as some others.

I could hear him sigh heavily on the other end of the line, though I didn't really know what the problem was. However, he seemed to resolve it with some of the other guys, because he spoke to me soon after. "Fine, I'll come get you. I'll bring Albert and have him text you when we get close, but I'm not waiting around forever," Chris replied, bringing forth a sigh of relief from me. I had almost been sure that he was going to leave me here.

"Don't worry, I'll be there," I assured him, giving a quick goodbye before hanging up the phone. Now all I had to do was wait, and hopefully I would be able to get out of the school with few problems. However, there was one problem that I had to face right then: should I take anyone with me?

I looked around the room quickly, my eyes scanning every other person as I did. There was only one person that I really liked in the class, and that was my best friend Kathryn. She was a bit of a nerd, and not at all prepared to deal with the zombie apocalypse, but I wasn't about to leave her behind to be eaten. I stood up quickly and walked over to her, giving her a light tap on the shoulder to get her attention. She stiffened in her seat immediately, pulling the notebook she had been writing in to her chest as she turned to look at me. I wasn't sure what she had done that she needed to hide, but I wasn't about to ask. We had more pressing matters to attend to.

"You need to find something to kill walkers with. We're getting out of here," I said, trying to keep myself from laughing as her expressive eyes, framed by navy blue glasses, stared at me as if I had just given her the news that the world was ending.

"Are you crazy? We'll die out there!" she protested, her face going pale simply talking about it. I could see that she was uncomfortable with the idea, but what I planned to do would put her in the line of fire either way. It was better that she had my protection than for me to leave her. I didn't want to do that, but if Chris got here and she still wouldn't come, then I would have to.

"No, I'm fucking thinking, Kat. If we just sit here, those things are going to get in eventually. I don't want to wait around for that, and I don't want you to die when they get in," I replied, leaning on the chair she was sitting in a bit. I wasn't sure how long it would take to convince her, but I wasn't giving up on her. Not until I was sure I couldn't get her to come.

She sat there for a few moments in silence, her fingers tapping on the hard cover of the notebook as she seemed to contemplate her options. The moans of the walkers weren't going away, though, and I think that's what won her over to my cause.

"Fine, but if I get eaten I'm blaming you," Kathryn joked, standing up beside me and scanning the room. She was a few inches taller than me, so it was no problem for her to look over my head as she searched for something to defend herself with.

I chuckled softly at her comment, but did nothing as I watched her pick up different objects, pretending to hit something with them as she tried to decide which one would prove the most effective against the undead outside the classroom. She finally settled with a metal yardstick after a few minutes, which I thought would serve her well. She wouldn't have to get as close to the walkers as I would, at least. The buzz of my phone startled me as Kathryn approached me with her new weapon, my hand immediately traveling to the pocket where the device was kept. It was Albert, and the message contained exactly the words I wanted to see:  _We're here._

I looked up at my friend, my eyes flickering to the undead still clawing at the glass in hopes of getting in. I couldn't see their faces clearly anymore since they'd coated the windows in a thin layer of blood, but I knew they were still out there. They hadn't stopped moaning yet. The only question left for me was how I was going to get Kathryn and I out without letting the walkers in. I turned to her to ask that exact question, but my eyes caught sight of a new problem: our teacher was looking straight at us.

"What are you two doing?" She asked, her black eyes glaring at me from across the room. She had always hated me for some reason; because I was horrible at math, perhaps, but I wasn't about to stay to find out.

"Leaving," I barked back, pulling my scissors out of my pocket. There wasn't much time now, and I knew that the woman would never let me leave this room. Not when the only option I had would kill them all.

"And how are you going to do that when the only exit is swarming with walkers?" She retorted, the condescending look she was giving me enough to erase most of the remorse of what was my only option. I'd never liked any of them in the first place, so it wouldn't be too hard for me to leave them to the walkers... Right?

"It's not that hard to figure out," I said, looking at Kathryn and motioning for her to get in the corner as I approached the door. I could tell that some of the kids were realizing what I was about to do, but there was no way they were going to stop me. My hand was already on the doorknob. I twisted the knob quickly, pulling it open just a crack before I released it. I knew the walkers would do the rest, and I didn't want to be too close to them as they came in.

They shoved the door open immediately, at least six pouring into the room. They grabbed at the kids closest to them, following their screams as they made their way into the classroom. One spotted me, letting out a small gurgle before limping towards me. Shit.

I gripped my scissors tightly, my hand shaking a bit as I watched the mangled thing approach me. Its nose had been torn off completely, and there was a chunk missing from one of its legs as well. It was slow, and that was what gave me the advantage. I waited for it to get close enough to plunge the pointed edge of my makeshift weapon into the creature's skull, trying to keep myself from vomiting as its black blood spurted from the wound and onto my clothes. I felt like I was going to hurl, but I managed to keep it down. I would be seeing a lot more of these bleeding corpses if this apocalypse lasted much longer.

Kathryn, however, was dealing with it in a completely different way. I turned to find her bent over in the corner retching, tears rolling down her cheeks as the reality of what was happening weighed down on her. It was awful to see her like that, but if knew that either one of us could be in the shoes of some of the other kids if we didn't leave now.

"C'mon Kat, let's go. Our ride's waiting," I said, holding out my hand to help her up. She nodded, clutching her yardstick tightly in one hand before pulling herself up with the other. I could tell that she was horrified, but I couldn't worry about her feelings, or my own, right now. We needed to get out of here, and that was what we were going to do. I wasn't sure how many walkers would be waiting throughout the school, but I did know that I could handle them now. I wasn't going to let any of them touch those I loved, either. Not until my heart stopped beating.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again everyone, and thank you for joining me for another chapter! This story is just getting started, and I'm excited for you all to experience this with me. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and don't forget to leave comments and kudos to let me know what you think!

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! Thank you for taking the time to read my story. I hope you enjoyed it, and please leave comments and kudos if you did!


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